Microsoft Officially Launches Surface PC In UK

Microsoft has finally launched its widely anticipated tabletop PC, dubbed Surface, in the UK; the computer was launched earlier this month at the CeBit Show in Germany.

Eliminating the need of mouse and keyboard, Surface is a coffee table that has a high-tech computer integrated into the tabletop, and it sports a 30-inch multi-touch screen that reacts to the movements of fingertips of the users.

In addition to the users’ gestures and fingertips, the new tabletop also boasts of the capability to respond to the objects placed over it, as if a digital camera on top of it, its images would automatically appear on the screen of the tabletop, allowing users to sort through them as they would do with the physical prints.

Quoting the capabilities of its new tabletop device, Microsoft asserted that this touchscreen device will enable the users to “interact with digital content the same way they have interacted with everyday items such as photos, paintbrushes and music their entire lives”.

The technology was introduced in the last year’s CeBit Show, and was commercially available in the US and Canada since its launch. The new device, which forms a part of Microsoft’s digital home vision, will initially be available to the businesses only with a price tag worth £8,500.

Meanwhile, the software giant has also put forth its plans to increase the screen size of its tabletop device with a 46-inch version of the device seems to be there on the cards, notified Matt Champagne, director for project management for Surface.

At £8,500, Microsoft's Surface is not going to be affordable and the cross between a television and a touchscreen means that it will require a substantial real estate to begin with. Obviously Surface will have some niche markets (trading floors, A&E, mining and exploration, weather etc) but it is highly unlikely that it will ever replace your faithful keyboard and mouse anytime soon.